Well above the Arctic Circle, and about 480 kilometres up the Porcupine River from Fort Yukon, Old Crow is located further north than any of the other Yukon communities and the region may well have a longer history. In the mid 1970s archeologists began to make exciting discoveries in the three caves overlooking the Bluefish River, about 50 kilometres southwest of Old Crow. Artifacts from the area date from as far back as 10,000 to 18,000 years, and some experts make a claim for 24,000 years.

Even in post-contact times, when the Vuntut Gwitchin people spent much of the year in Rampart House, the confluence of the Porcupine and Crow rivers served as a meeting place. The first permanent settlers of the 20th century would have established homes there in 1904, according to Gwitchin Elder John Joe Kaye. [Old Crow Walking Tour, Tourism and Culture and Vuntut Gwitchin] After the smallpox outbreak at Rampart House and the problems created for hunters and trappers by the border that ran nearby, more families moved north to Old Crow. The community was named after Chief Crow May I Walk who led the Vuntut Gwitchin in the 1870s. The RCMP post, school and church were established in the 1920s.